Man on FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List Arrested in Florida

Captured fugitive Donald Eugene Fields II. FBI photo, undated

A man listed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list for child sex crimes has been arrested, according to the agency.

Donald Eugene Fields II was arrested on the morning of Jan. 25 by the Lady Lake, Florida, Police Department, said a Jan. 25 statement from the FBI.

Lady Lake is northwest of Orlando. Fields, 60, was added to the FBI’s most-wanted list in May 2023. He faces child sex trafficking charges in a federal court and child rape charges in a state court.

The arrest occurred during a routine traffic stop when officers found that the license plate was not registered to the vehicle that Fields was driving. The incident happened on U.S. Highway 27/441 at Rolling Acres Road at 9:15 a.m. ET.

“Fields II will be scheduled to make his first appearance in federal court in Florida,” the agency said. FBI St. Louis Special Agent in Charge Ashley Johnson praised the Lady Lake department’s “proactive policing” for nabbing the fugitive.

Fields was indicted in St. Louis on Dec. 7, 2023, on one count of child sex trafficking, according to the FBI.

“The indictment accuses Fields II of knowingly attempting to recruit, entice, provide, patronize, and solicit a minor into engaging in a commercial sex act from about January 2013 until June 2017,” the FBI said.

“Fields II is also facing charges including statutory rape, statutory sodomy, child molestation, and witness tampering in Franklin County Circuit Court in Missouri. A warrant for his arrest was issued by that court after Fields II vacated his home and failed to show up for a March 3, 2022, hearing.”

The FBI established the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list in March 1950. Fields was the 531st individual added to the list. A total of 495 fugitives on the list have been apprehended or located by authorities. The agency had offered up to $250,000 for information leading to Fields’s arrest.

According to the agency, Fields, who was born in Kentucky, has worked as a tree trimmer and has sold used cars. He was last known to reside in Franklin County, Missouri. Fields has family in Kentucky and Missouri and was known to visit casinos, the FBI said.

In November 2024, Theodore “Ted” John Sartori Sr., 64, co-defendant in a case involving Fields, was sentenced to 10 years in prison “for exchanging cash and other items of value for sex with a 14-year-old girl,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

FBI’s Most Wanted List

In May 2023, the FBI increased its reward for information leading directly to the arrest of anyone on the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. The reward was previously set as $100,000. The agency bumped this to $250,000, saying that rewards may be even higher in certain cases.

“The FBI recognizes the crucial role that public assistance has played in tracking fugitives throughout the years,” Assistant Director Luis Quesada of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division said at the time.

“Raising the rewards for the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives will ideally garner additional public tips resulting in the capture of these dangerous criminals.”

According to recent data, out of the total 495 fugitives from the list that authorities apprehended or located, 163 were the result of citizen cooperation.

Nine more members of the current list yet to be caught include eight men and a woman.

A key member of the list is Yulan Adonay Archaga Carias, who is alleged to be the leader of the MS-13 gang in Honduras. The U.S. government is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest and/or conviction.

Another key individual is Haiti-born Vitel’Homme Innocent, who is alleged to be the leader of the Kraze Barye gang, which worked with another gang to kidnap 17 Christian missionaries in 2021 and also allegedly killed an American during another kidnapping in 2022. The FBI is offering up to $2 million for information leading to his arrest and/or conviction.

A third person on the list, Wilver Villegas-Palomino from Colombia, is wanted for drug trafficking activities in the Catatumbo region of Colombia and Venezuela. The FBI is offering “up to $5 million for information leading to his arrest and/or conviction.”

The sole woman on the list, Ruja Ignatova, also known as the crypto queen, is wanted “for her alleged leadership of a massive fraud scheme that affected millions of investors worldwide.”

The reward is “up to $5 million for information leading to her arrest and/or conviction.”